Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-08
THAT COLLISION.
Testimony Of the Condaetor, the Fire.
man and Brakeman OF the
Badly Managed Freight.
Seven out of tho Ten Killed are Identi
fied-Men swoar that the En-
- gineer was Drunk.

CLEVELAND, OHIO, Jan. THE in
quest into the causes OF the Baltimore
and Ohio wreck st Republic was begun
ness examined was L. +. Fletcher,
conductor of the freight train. He said
Ed Killer was engineer of the freight and
w. L. Cullison fireman. We ran from
Tiffin to Seneca siding, about three and a
half miles east Of here and slde-tracked
for the east-bound express. After this
train passed We had forty-tve minutes in
which to make Republic siding. We left
this place with 40 pounds of steam and
after going two miles l noticed
that the train was slackenipg. l went
forward ever the cars, eighteen in num-
Der, to the engine to see what was
wrong. | found that the steam had run
down to forty pounds. | opened the door
of the furnace and looked ct the fire, and
then locked at my watch and saw that we
had but four minutes until No. west
bound express was due. | took red and
white lantern end ran ahead TO tf3g her.
l got about 100 yards 10 the curve and
signaled to stop. As the express ap-
preached | noticed that the engineer had
reversed his engine. In the meantime
the freight had come to q stand, and the
engineer had shut off steam and
Jumped off when the collision &C
Cured. The engineer had been drink
ing. saw MIN take two
drinks of whisky at Bloomdale, and two
st Fostoria. When | saw We had but
four minutes to make the siding at Re-
public the engineer did not seem to real
ize the danger ahead. | tried to get pas
sengers out of the burning cars. One
man was damned between the smoker
and the ladies' car. | tried to get him
out, but the flames drove me away and he
had to burn l heard no shrieks or cries
of the others in the burning cars.
w. j. Cullison, fireman of the frei9ht,
was next called. He said he wss farm
hand, and had been on the road but three
weeks, and never knew anything about
the business before. He said: owe had
trouble in keeping up the fire. We
had l4O pounds of steam when
we left Seneca siding. The train
ran four or five miles when the steam was
down to sixty pounds. We were then
going about three miles per hour. The
cor ductor came in and looked at the lie
and said it was right. When the conductor
went ahead to flag and saw the express
coming he yelled back for US to jump.
After the collision occurred tried To get
persons out. l saw persons IN there
burning, but | was SO excited that
could tell but little about it."
Charles Snyder Of Columbus, Ohio, was
front brakeman on the freight. He said:
az was il the cab of the engine and no.
ticed they had but one gauge of water
when they should have had at least
three. ] was going ahead TO flag
but the conductor grabbed lantern
and went. l know nothing about either
the conductor or the engineer drinking.
At the collision | saw u man hanging
about half way out of the smoker who
called to me for Gods sake to nelp him
out. The man was supposed to be NJ. IL.
Parks of Washington. l heard no one on
the inside Of the smoker"
Thomas f Eskett Of Wheeling, con-
ductor OF the express on the night of the
collision, testified that the express was
three minutes late at Republic. had
about sixty passengers, fourteen or tit-
teen in the smoker. OF that number five
escaped from the smoker, two by being
thrown out of the top of the car
urinjured, and three somewhat in
jured. l think there were not more
than ten killed. | have in nv
possession cards thrown from the smoker
bearing the name of NH. Parks, Washing
ton, ID. c. There was writing on the card
which the brother OF the dead man recog-
nized op trial. OF the number killed seven
are known.
j. Hale of Rowan, Indians, was rear
brakeman on the freight and when the
collision occurred he took Il lantern aud
went In the rear about mile to fllg any
other train. The inquest will be resumed
in the morning.